Walk in like you own the place

Welcome to my Blog! I thought I would start the first entry with the Genesis of this thing I call: “My Adventures with Google Maps”. The name may change and format will definitely evolve, but the spark of this thing started less than a year ago. I went back to college in the winter semester of 2018. I was 50 years old, ran businesses most of my life, was in between “gigs” and thought it was time to finish my business degree I started in my 20s. I had gone to broadcasting school at Husson University in early 1990s. Always thought it was a good college, so I went back.

My favorite class ended up being “Intro to Business”, oddly enough. We had an assignment called “Walk in like you own the place”. Basically we were supposed to pick a business with a physical location, go there, observe what we see, interact with the employees, use their service or product with the mindset of being the “owner”. Then the work part of the project: write a 200 word paper about the experience and your thoughts on the business. Now the class (me included) did a collective groan at “200 words”, but you know… this blog is already at 183 words. It’s not that tough, in fact I really enjoyed it and it ended up sending me down the road of what I want to do for the rest of my life. “Walk in like I own the place” and then write about it. Many places, restaurants, stores, bars, parks, museums, libraries, fire departments, bars, police departments (I don’t know if I’ll walk in like I own the place on that last one, I might end up in jail, but we’ll see what happens.) Always trying to look for the experiences/stories/details and ways they could be improved, I find it all very fascinating.

The restaurant I choose to do was the Dockside Family Restaurant in Belfast, Maine. While we were there, Google Maps popped up my phone and said..”What do you think of Dockside Restaurant?” This got me digging around and I noticed Google gives you points for each review, pictures, etc. I got all excited, I told the person I was with and she responded with an eye roll. But she did not dash my dreams, I was off to the races. With Google Maps.

Nine months later, here we are. I’ve done hundreds of reviews, have a new website and this blog is born. And I’m still loving doing it. So I hope you join me on “My Adventures with Google Maps”

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